Summer 2014

I used to have a foot fetish… until I joined a climbing gym. There’s an old saying, “climbing is not a spectator sport,” but when belaying my partner at the new Momentum in Mill Creek, I can’t help but spectate at all the distracting, gnarled, swollen feet of my fellow climbers. Everyone who’s not on […]

I live in Southwest Utah, a unique comingling of eco-zones where the Mojave Desert, the Colorado Plateau, and the Great Basin all intersect. It is a sought after destination for world travelers because this intersection of eco-zones has created a diverse and spectacular desert landscape that holds not only stunning views and wonder, it promises […]

There is a climb in Ferguson Canyon named Devil Tree. It clocks in at 5.10a although Kurt Ottmann, one of the first ascent team, told me that while not sandbagged at that rating, some might find it particularly challenging for that rating. Stuart and Bret Ruckman describe it in their guidebook Rock Climbing the Wasatch […]

I have a hard time taking myself seriously these days. I recently left the comfort of my cozy condo on Powder Mountain Road in Eden, Utah in favor of living in an old, musty tent. I ditched luxuries like electricity, running water and wi-fi, to instead live amongst the critters of the Manti LaSal National […]

Why is it that the Republicans continue to ignore their own conservation heritage? The latest chest-pounding, finger pointing grandstanding has been by Utah Rep. Rob Bishop whose H.R. 1459 passed the House. His bill attempts to gut the 1906 Antiquities Act signed into law by my hero Republican President Theodore Roosevelt who used it […]

I’m really good at procrastinating. I was supposed to have this column submitted last night so the magazine can go to the printer today. I was also supposed to leave for the first leg of a summer-long journey yesterday. Neither happened of course, and, as a result, both writing and packing will end in a […]

Picture any high school athletic event, like football for example, and images cross the mind of marching bands, cheerleaders, sod-covered fields, and costumed mascots. Now replace all those classic “Friday Night Lights” slices of Americana with cowbells, spandex, singletrack trails, and teams competing with each other instead of against each other, and you have […]

Life in winter is like a protein shake—the least amount of good flavor you can tolerate blended with the most amount of protein in the least amount of time. In other words, the most efficient, tolerable amount of work is balanced with maximum time on snow. Everything’s on a schedule. The ingredients are: planning […]

It was easy to ditch out on the tail ends of a desiccated April in the Sierra’s. Winter was in disarray and we were frothing to load up our sensory receptors on a Utah desert buffet. We kicked out of Tahoe City at dawn for the 13-hour push to Moab. Our caravan filed […]

The Mineral Mountains are concealed from the eyes of I-15 passerby, however this southern Utah granite sanctuary beckons to more then just rock climbers “Are we in Middle-Earth?” I ask my climbing mate Josh. We’re now about 30 minutes west of Beaver, Utah and I swear at any moment we’ll see a heard […]

Vast and rugged, the terrain of the Wasatch is prime territory for mountain biking. The “greatest snow on Earth” melts into the streams and rivers every spring and unveils a plethora of riding opportunities for cyclists of every ilk. Countless threads of single track weave through the landscape as if carefully pulled towards a […]